Timeform UK SmartPlays: Wednesday June 1

Race 2 – Nottingham 11:30pm

5. Darma: Produced a career-best on her return from over nine months off the track at Kempton last time, showing a game attitude once headed in the final furlong and only narrowly failing to get the better of an improving rival.

She had a subsequent winner three-quarters of a length behind her in third that day and is entitled to improve with that outing under her belt.

A winner of a Kempton maiden in October 2014, Darma is yet to reproduce the same level of form in four starts on turf, but looks worth another chance to prove her effectiveness on this surface and is fancied to do so with a defeat of recent Bath winner Posh Bounty.

Betting Strategy

BACK – Darma

Race 5 – Nottingham 1:00am

6. Intimation: Fared better than the bare result when seventh on her seasonal debut at Newmarket and had looked a stakes performer in the making when dismissing her rivals at Leicester in July.

A member of Timeform’s Horses to Follow for 2016, an entry in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes suggests she is held in high regard by her powerful connections and, while she is unlikely to prove good enough to take up that Curragh engagement, Intimation looks to hold sound claims of making a successful debut in pattern company here.

Sound of Freedom was a smart performer in Italy last year and is feared most after a pipe-opener at Chelmsford.

Betting Strategy

BACK – Intimation

Race 6 – Ripon 6:00am

5. Carpe Vita: Showed little in three starts for Charles Hills as a three-year-old, but there was always a chance the full-sister to St Leger and Gold Cup winner Leading Light would take off when stepped up in trip and she made the perfect start for the David O’Meara yard when scoring at Redcar in August.

A fair second on her next start at Ayr, she looked desperately in need of the run when third on her return to action at Catterick recently and, with the possibility of further improvement now stepped up to two miles for the first time, Carpe Vita can regain the winning thread with a verdict over the consistent Rock On Bollinski here.